News-Record.com

Finally, some honesty from the presidential campaigns.

Even if it's unofficial, or unauthorized, I find it reassuring that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton really are tuned in to some realities.

For example, making private assurances to the Canadian government that they won't tear up NAFTA. Maybe the idea of retreating on free trade with Canada appeals to some gullible voters in Ohio, but let's get serious. Canada is our top trading partner -- and it's a fair partnership. Clinton and Obama should recognize the value of that relationship.

Now comes Obama senior foreign policy adviser Samantha Powers (until she called Clinton a monster) letting us know that Obama's pronouncements about Iraq are just campaign rhetoric.

No kidding? He can't "end the war in 2009" or soon thereafter?

Of course not. I suppose he could withdraw all U.S. troops within 16 months as he's pledged, although that would present logistical challenges, but the war would continue. It's just that the U.S. would have admitted defeat and abandoned any chance of leaving a friendly, democratic government behind.

"You can't make a commitment in March 2008 about what circumstances will be like in January of 2009," Powers told a BBC interviewer. "He will, of course, not rely on some plan that he's crafted as a presidential candidate or a U.S. senator. He will rely upon a plan -- an operational plan -- that he pulls together in consultation with people who are on the ground to whom he doesn't have daily access now, as a result of not being the president. So to think -- it would be the height of ideology to sort of say, 'Well, I said it, therefore I'm going to impose it on whatever reality greets me.' "

I hope that's exactly what he will do. It's the responsible approach. As president, he shouldn't make critical decisions based on pronouncements he could sell to voters in the course of a campaign.

Certainly, I'd prefer straight talk from a candidate. But a lot of Democratic voters won't accept straight talk about Iraq, so Obama's playing politics. Look, he's a damn good politician. The best politicians have the ability to convince voters they're somehow above politics.

What's most important, though, is that if Obama is elected -- and he appears to have the best chance among the three contenders -- he will evaluate challenges and make decisions according to the best interests of the country rather than what were the best interests of his political fortunes in 2008.